Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn’t budging on a proposal to hike the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

But not all of his Democratic colleagues are following their leader on the issue, which is key to the party’s election-year messaging. In fact, moderate Democrats — including a handful up for reelection this year — are weighing support of a more modest increase designed to attract Republicans that could save them from having to oppose a tough bill before November.

But liberals and party leaders are standing firm, a position that could leave low-income workers with no wage increase at all in 2014.

Reid sees little reason to negotiate on the $10.10 hourly rate given a widely held Democratic belief that Republicans will reflexively oppose any rate increase, no matter how low. Asked Tuesday if there’s a path to an eventual compromise, the Nevada Democrat said simply: “Not with me.”

Interviews with a group of deal-seeking Democrats and Republicans indicate that there is room for negotiation. Elements under discussion include dropping the rate under $10.10 an hour, adding business incentives and re-examining the wage floor for tipped workers, which would rise for the first time in more than 20 years under legislation written by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and co-sponsored by Reid. Under that bill, wages would rise in future years at the rate of inflation.

The Senate is expected to vote on Harkin’s bill in late March or early April, and several Democrats staring down tough reelection races this year will support it — including Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. Recently elected red-state senators like Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Jon Tester of Montana have also signed on.

But three Senate Democrats have declined to endorse a federal wage floor of $10.10 an hour, including two senators up for reelection in red states: Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. Another undecided lawmaker is Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who is working on a compromise.

Manchin is concerned about a Congressional Budget Office report that showed a $10.10 hourly minimum wage would pull roughly 900,000 people out of poverty but also cost 500,000 jobs. That same CBO report showed a potential middle ground at $9 an hour, which would lift fewer out of poverty but have less impact on employers.

“Some people say it’s a bigger jump than what we’ve ever taken before. The bottom line is that nobody that works full-time should be in poverty,” Manchin said. “We’re talking with our bipartisan group that we have right in the middle, to see if they have some comfort level.”

Regardless of whether they can get their whole caucus on board, Democratic sources privately acknowledge their $10.10-an-hour quest is futile given that the Republican-controlled House has little appetite for the issue. Democrats still see an upside to a failed vote on the minimum wage — the current federal minimum wage is $7.25 — to draw a clear contrast with Republicans during a midterm battle over the Senate majority. It’s part of a larger narrative Democrats are pushing centered on income inequality.

On Wednesday evening, a New York Times survey found that two-thirds of those polled support raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

And since President Barack Obama endorsed $10.10 an hour after previously supporting a $9-an-hour rate, there is little reason for Reid to reconsider his hard-line stance until the Senate first votes on the Harkin bill.

The party’s liberal base is warning Reid not to back down.

“How do you start negotiating downward when the minimum wage is worth a third less than it was worth in 1968?” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). “If the president said $9, [Republicans] would have been against it. If he said $7.75, they probably would have been against it. I don’t think you play that game.”

The dug-in positions of both parties raise strong doubts about whether Democratic leaders can even gather 60 votes to open debate on the bill. That’s precisely the way Democrats want it, according to many Senate Republicans.

“They want the political issue,” said Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota. “Just check the box: Now we’ve got them on record.”

Still, several Republicans are exploring whether Democrats want a compromise or whether the party is satisfied to paint the GOP as obstructionist and move on. Many Republicans supported past minimum-wage hikes, particularly when linked to business tax breaks.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said he might be open to a package that raises the wage and is coupled “with something that incentivizes hiring.” GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine won’t rule out supporting a “reasonable” increase, acknowledging that “it has been a while since we’ve had an increase in the minimum wage.” But both are wary of Democrats’ motives.

“If they want truly to get something done, then a compromise is possible. If people want to just play politics with the issue, then obviously a compromise wouldn’t succeed,” Collins said.

The wage level that wavering Democrats and Republicans might support is not entirely clear. Pryor has endorsed a 2014 ballot initiative in his home state of Arkansas that would raise the state rate to $8.50 an hour, which he is touting in his reelection bid against Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).

“I’m very comfortable with the Arkansas proposal. It’s a process where it goes on the ballot and people vote on it. I don’t know what’s going to happen up here [in the Capitol], so I’ll just let it play out,” Pryor said. “I’ll just wait and see if anybody proposes something different.”

Landrieu’s focus is on the tipped wage, which would rise from $2.13 an hour to more than $7 an hour by 2019 under the Democrats’ bill and is opposed by the restaurant industry. She isn’t sure where she will ultimately land on $10.10 an hour but said there “may be” a middle ground.

“I’m considering how high the increase should be,” Landrieu said. “So while I’m very supportive and generally supportive, I’m working with a few colleagues to see what maybe we could talk about on that tip wage issue. Republicans, too.”

The retiring Harkin said he’s open to working with Republicans on sweetening the bill for businesses. But he is unbending on the proposal’s core.

“There’s things that we can do if people need help for businesses,” Harkin said. “But to go to $9 means you still have a subpoverty minimum wage. I will never support a subpar minimum wage. That’s out of the question.”